Photo by Mike Maddock Heathwood Hall’s Davis Verbick (top) and Will Cloyd tackle Hammond’s Les Cotter. Heathwood Hall quarterback Mac Whalen circled the date and opponent as soon as he saw this season’s football schedule: at Hammond, Oct. 23.

“I’ve been waiting the whole year for this game,” the senior quarterback Mac Whalen said. “I had to redeem myself. Last year (a 51–28 loss), I threw a couple of picks. They (Hammond) got to me early ... rattled me. That loss was my fault. I took full responsibility.”

So it was only fair, then, that Whalen basked in the joy after leading the Highlanders 48 yards in the final minute to a game–winning field goal in a 10–7 victory.

The win, which prompted Heathwood Hall students and fans to storm the field chanting 9–0, gave the Highlanders:

• their first victory against Hammond since their undefeated 2005 season.

Photo by Mike Maddock Heathwood Hall’s Cole Fowble makes the winning kick against Hammond. • the SCISA Class 3A Region 3 title.

• homefield advantage throughout the playoffs.

In addition to what the victory gave Heathwood Hall, the Highlanders (9–0, 3–0) also gained satisfaction from handing Hammond (8–1, 2–1) its first loss since Week 6 of last season (Ben Lippen) and first home loss in more than four years.

“This win means momentum,” Heathwood Hall coach Rip Blackstone said. “It gives our guys the confidence they can beat anyone, and that’s important heading into the playoffs. Now, it’s not going to be hard to get them up for practice everyday the rest of the way.”

To be fair, the Heathwood Hall defense and kicker Cole Fowble merited some basking time.

A “Mac” of all trades: Mac Whalen did just about everything, but kick and play defense for Heathwood Hall in the Highlanders 10–7 victory over rival Hammond: quarterback, holder, punter, and kick returner. Fowble kicked the 33–yarder, which had the distance to be good from 43, on the game’s final play.

“With about 39 seconds left, I had a sense it was going to come down to me,” Fowble said of the Highlanders moving 34 yards in their first two plays of the final drive including a 30–yard catch by Morgan Whalen (3 catches, 53 yards), who followed it with an 18–yarder to take the ball down to the 12.

The kick was the longest of the season for Fowble, a senior who said he was 6 of 8 on field goal tries.

“I thought we were going to overtime,” said Whalen, who completed 9 of 22 passes for 120 yards. “I thought Hammond would run out the clock, but our defense made a great stand, and our receivers made two great catches to get us down the field. Once we were there, I had 100–percent confidence Cole was going to make that kick.”

Photos by Mike Maddock That aggressive defense produced four turnovers; three came when Joseph English stepped in front of the receiver, Fowble jumped a pass route in the flat, and defenders crashing the pocket stripped quarterback Dave Nidiffer as his arm was cocked to throw.

“Our defense came up big,” Mac Whalen said. “Our defensive coordinator (Brad Coleman) is the best in the state, and the defense had a great plan. Hammond has one heck of an offense and to hold them to 7 points is impressive.”

In fact, the fewest points Hammond had scored in the previous four seasons had been in a 7–3 victory aagainst Orangeburg–Prep earlier this season and a 13–10 victory against Pinewood Prep in last year’s playoffs.

In addition to preventing Hammond from running out the clock, although it did pick up three first downs on its last possession, Heathwood limited the Skyhawks to four possessions of more than five plays. One was the six–play scoring drive in the third quarter, capped by Nidiffer (12–28–139) hitting Aaron Walters (6–86) on a 38– yard touchdown. Another was a 13–play drive led by BJ Bennett’s 38 rushing yards (16–65 overall) that resulted in a missed 32– yard–field–goal try midway through the fourth quarter.

In contrast, Heathwood, after its first possession, did not have a drive of longer than six plays.

“Our defense played fantastic,” Hammond coach Erik Kimrey said. “It gave us every chance to win this game. The only touchdown they had was set up by a turnover and came on a short field. But, we had drops on third down, couldn’t establish the run, committed turnovers and made mistakes ... In short, we did exactly what you do to just lose a game.”

Hammond dodged the short field by Heathwood immediately after the turnover. But when Heathwood’s defense forced a three–and–out by Hammond, Heathwood gained another short field (at the 40). This time, Mac Whalen (24–54) ran in from 10 yards out to tie the game at 7.
Photo by Mike Maddock Hammond’s BJ Bennett gets gang tackled by the Heathwood Hall defense.
Photo by Mike Maddock Hammond’s Mr. and Miss Homecoming Layna Plyler and Thomas Ulmer.
Photo by Mike Maddock Hammond’s Aaron Walters intercepts a Heathwood Hall pass.